Security breach delays five flights at Sea-Tac
 |
|
||||||||||
SEATAC — At least five flights were delayed and hundreds of passengers rescreened after a security breach yesterday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
A woman in a wheelchair and her son were going through a security gate to Concourse B about 11 a.m. The woman was taken through an exit door and brought to the secured side of gate, like all passengers in wheelchairs, airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Mohon said.
But there was confusion over whether the woman had been screened with a metal-detecting wand, as is done with those in wheelchairs. The Federal Aviation Administration was contacted, and it was decided that the entire concourse — used by Southwest and Delta airlines — should be evacuated and all passengers rescreened.
The process took about an hour.
Central Area traffic dispute leads to shooting of motorist
SEATTLE — A 32-year-old Kent man was shot early yesterday after a Central Area traffic dispute and was in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center.
Shortly before 2 a.m., police said, the man backed his car into another car with a woman inside near 21st Avenue East and East Madison Street. After they both argued, the woman called her boyfriend on a cell phone.
The boyfriend arrived a short time later and argued with the man and then shot him, police said. The man was able to walk a block before he collapsed. No arrests were made.
Seattle elementary teacher on leave for disciplining child
SEATTLE — A teacher at Cooper Elementary School has been put on paid leave after a run-in with a first-grader on a school bus.
Last Wednesday, according to the Seattle School District, an "incident" occurred on the bus for which the teacher determined the pupil was responsible. The teacher asked the child to get off the bus, but the child was reluctant, said district spokesman Bill Southern.
The teacher then "took additional steps" to get the child off the bus, Southern said, and "we determined it was inappropriate." The teacher was put on paid leave that afternoon or the next day.
Southern declined to identify the teacher and said he didn't know what had provoked the discipline. Southern said the teacher could face anything from a letter of reprimand to suspension.
Forty-four King County parks on off-season closure list
SEATTLE — Forty-four King County parks will be closed for two months each this off-season and next, and the county parks department is being merged with another department because of budget shortfalls, the county announced yesterday.
The closures had been expected since last month, but a final list had not been made public.
The closures include Juanita Beach Park in Kirkland, Five Mile Park in Auburn, Fort Dent Park in Tukwila, Eastgate Park in Bellevue, Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island and Sammamish Cove Park in Issaquah.
A complete list is online at www.metrokc.gov/.
The closings — next month, February, November and next December — were made necessary because of a $2.3 million cut in the county parks budget next year.
And as one more cost-cutting measure, the Parks Department will be merged with the county Department of Natural Resources to become a division of a new Department of Natural Resources and Parks.
Algerian indicted in Ressam's 1999 plot to bomb airport
NEW YORK — An Algerian was indicted yesterday on charges he helped a convicted terrorist prepare to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations.
Samir Ait Mohamed is accused of trying to get weapons for Ahmed Ressam so Ressam could rob banks and raise money for the bombing, federal prosecutors said.
The millennium plot was foiled when Ressam — who trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan — was arrested entering Port Angeles in late 1999 with a trunkload of explosives. He was convicted of plotting to bomb the airport and agreed to testify against other terror suspects in hopes of reducing a potential 130-year sentence.
Oregon coast is combed for two missing in plane
PORTLAND — Searchers patrolled the southern Oregon coast yesterday for a small plane carrying two New York businessmen that disappeared on the way from Arcata, Calif., to Port Angeles.
The Coast Guard and the Civil Air Patrol were searching near Brookings and the Chetco River area, just north of the Oregon-California line.
One man was identified as Yury Avrutin, the pilot. The second man remained unidentified, officials said.
The single-engine Mooney left the Northern California town Tuesday afternoon. Avrutin's sister reported that the plane failed to arrive by 7 p.m.
Man, 52, pleads guilty in 1998 death of woman
BELLINGHAM — James Kinney, the subject of a two-year manhunt in the 1998 death of a young Massachusetts woman visiting relatives here, pleaded guilty yesterday to aggravated first-degree murder.
Kinney, 52, changed his plea hours after prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty in the death of Keri Lynne Sherlock. Sentencing was set for Jan. 14.
Kinney was arrested last spring in Elizabeth City, N.C., by authorities responding to tips after a story about the case aired on the television's "America's Most Wanted." He was working in construction and using an assumed name.
Sherlock, 20, of Braintree, Mass., was visiting relatives while she considered attending Western Washington University. She spent the evening with Kinney before she disappeared Oct. 3, 1998.
A truck he had been driving was found near her body on a logging road near Mount Baker.
Jail guard in Seattle accused of link to San Francisco killing
SEATTLE — A King County Jail guard was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday, accused of providing the gun used in the 1997 murder for hire of a woman at her San Francisco hair salon.
Court documents said Tannie Tomlin, 51, supplied the murder weapon to Marcos Ranjel, who was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder in the slaying. Carmel Sanger was killed with a point-blank gunshot to the head at her hair salon, the Pink Tarantula, on March 5, 1997.
Tomlin, who has been a King County jailer for 10 years, has been booked into the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac on two counts of aiding and abetting a convicted felon of possessing a firearm.
Earlier this year, Tomlin’s Seattle lawyer, Anthony Savage, acknowledged the weapon did belong to his client, but said the gun had been stolen. But prosecutors claim Ranjel and Tomlin have known each other for years, and that the two met in 1992 when Ranjel was imprisoned in King County.
Tomlin’s trial is set for February. If convicted, he could face 10 years in prison on each count. He was placed on leave earlier this year.
Ranjel was sentenced in California to life in prison without parole. And Sanger’s ex-husband, Robert Sanger, was sentenced to serve a minimum 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors said Sanger offered Ranjel $100,000 to kill his ex-wife because Sanger stood to receive $750,000 in life insurance from her death.
Woman files $2 million damage claim over rape
EVERETT— A young woman who was raped by an on-duty Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy has filed a $2 million damage claim with the clerk of the County Council.
The claim seeks damages for panic attacks, nightmares, flashbacks and depression stemming from the attack by former deputy Charles Adams, 35, who was convicted of third-degree rape in May.
In the criminal case, the woman testified that Adams encountered her following the crash of a car in which she was a passenger, drove her to a sheriff’s substation near Paine Field and forced her to have sex in November 1999, when she was 17. Adams claimed the sex was consensual.
The lawsuit accuses the county of negligence in the hiring, supervision and retention of Adams, a six-year veteran of the sheriff’s office. He was fired after being charged with rape.
The claim was filed Nov. 30. If it remains unresolved for 60 days from then, the woman may file a lawsuit against the county.
$1 million sought for police dog bite on campus
EDMONDS — An Edmonds Community College student has filed a $1 million damage claim after being bitten by a police dog in what he says was an unannounced training exercise on campus.
In the recently filed claim, Adam Taylor, 19, said he was bitten 10 times by Nico, an Edmonds police dog that also was cited in a previous claim. Named as defendants were the cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood, and Edmonds Community College.
Taylor could file a lawsuit if the claim remains unresolved after mid-January.
Taylor says he walked onto campus about 10 p.m. March 22 to turn in a class project which was due at midnight and was bitten when he walked into an unannounced exercise by Lynnwood and Edmonds police. According to the claim, there were no warning signs, nor was he told to avoid the area.
School officials say they had no idea that police dog training exercises were conducted on campus. Municipal officials would not comment on the case.
Taylor’s lawyer, Joseph Bennett, also represents a Marysville teenager who claims she was bitten a year earlier by the same dog, a German shepherd that lives with its handler, officer Linda Binkley of Marysville.
Information is from Seattle Times staff and news services.